The Structure Of Criminal Justice System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Structure Of Criminal Justice System - Essay Example Trial courts and police departments are organized at a city as well as country levels. The statewide system has many variations, which are determined by factors like overcrowding of local jails, court congestions, problems of justice administration and differing types of crime. US Congress, FBI, Secret Service are major parts of the federal system along with defense and public attorneys, the Federal Sentencing System and US Bureau of prisons. Dealing with crimes that involve laws of immigration and income tax also come under this domain. (Criminal Justice System) This relates to the goals, values and specific procedures of applicable criminal laws. While state legislative bodies have powers to enact statutes to deal with various offenses, local legislative bodies have the power to enact ordinances creating minor offenses. However, many criminal statutes are general in nature and can be interpreted by courts at various levels. In addition, certain defenses like a defense of property, self-defense, duress, and insanity do not have any statutory basis.(Criminal Justice System) The criminal justice investigation starts with a behavioral definition of the criminal act, while criminal case processing has many stages with the involvement of different agencies at each stage. Many offenses come to the knowledge of police only after the crime has been reported, minor crimes, like traffic violations and disorderly conduct, are directly dealt by local law enforcement officers.